Book 2, The Things We Learned (125-141) Summary

Rachel is excited that there is company for dinner and he's an eligible bachelor. Anatole, the schoolteacher, is twenty-four and is the local idea of a heartthrob. He's not in Rachel's color category but Rachel thinks that even if she were Congolese, she'd have to pass because of the scars he has all over his face. They aren't accident scars but ones done on purpose, like a tattoo. He speaks French and English and runs the school by himself. Only boys go to school here. Anatole is an orphan and worked in the diamond mines for a while.

The small talk goes on so long that Rachel thinks she's going to croak. Then, Anatole says that Tata Ndu is concerned about the moral decline of the village since so many people are going...